Kolchak, the Night Stalker.
Undercover policewoman/masseuse: "Why do you wear those strange shoes?"
Kolchak: "Because I run a lot."
Despite it's ties to the show mentioned above, "Kolchak" really hasn't been mentioned since Universal Studios tried to revamp interest in the show in 1978. This is quite disturbing since the TV movie that started it all, "The Night Stalker," was and is still one of the highest rated TV movies ever produced. Speaking of which, I should have tried starting this article with another way: the producer of the TV movies is Dan Curtis, who created the soap opera "Dark Shadows."
Anyway, due to the success of "The Night Stalker," Darren McGavin's character was brought into another high-rated TV movie called "The Night Strangler," where Kolchak faces an immortal and decaying doctor. Then, after the ABC network found interest in Carl Kolchak, a series was damn near inevitable. Unfortunately, Dan Curtis bowed out at this time, and his position was taken over by McGavin himself. Then, after a season of varied episodes (mostly good), the series was ended due to much controversy. Some reports even place the blame on McGavin, who was tired of doing the show due to bad and ludicrous scripts (one being "The Youth Killer," soon to make an appearance on this site). Two years later, Universal reedited four episodes of the series into two made-for-TV movies and released them and the rest of the series into late night to see if it took (CBS, I believe). It didn't, and Kolchak sadly faded into obscurity.
Kolchak, the Night Stalker.
Our review today follows the pilot episode of the series. Taking the original idea for "The Night Strangler," this episode concentrates on a reborn Jack the Ripper tearing through Milwaukee and Chicago, following the M.O.s of the Whitechapel Murders in 1888. The police, however, trap the Ripper only to have him escape by jumping off a three-story building, dodging hundreds of bullets, and hurdling a police car with no problem.
Kolchak then finds that there have been several Ripper cases in the past, and postulates that the Ripper in Chicago is the same one that committed the Whitechapel Murders and has been murdering throughout the last century to possibly prolong his life (which was basically the plot to "The Night Strangler, except ol' Jack's motives are never truly explained, save for a reference to a victim's kidney's being removed). The only key thing, however, was that all the Rippers were executed...except for one that escaped from a New York electric chair in 1908. So, Kolchak finds the Ripper's HQ and sets up a trap in a drainage ditch which fries the Ripper, leaving only his now-fried hat and shoe (???). However, the shoe is revealed to be over a hundred years old, made by an English cobbler who no longer makes that unique model.
This episode, while not the series' best, is still done in a fair manner. Not even speculating on who or what the Ripper is hurts the suspension of disbelief of his episode. For example, why does he disintegrate when electrocuted? And how is he immune to bullets? And just what is he doing with those kidneys? Why, why, why??? Plus, the Ripper isn't exactly constant. While the first three or four murders are committed late at night with woman alone, one of the murders takes place at a police sting with several cops present! The hell? What is this about???
Anyway, it's the supporting cast as well as the character of Kolchak that make this episode (and this show) worth watching. Darren McGavin plays Kolchak as a schmoe who, thanks to a supernatural experience, keeps falling into them one after the other, still scared out of his mind with each adventure. Simon Oakland, who plays Kolchak's tortured editor Tony Vincenzo, shows his skill episode after episode showing a man constantly suppressing his rage while dealing with his rogue reporter. He also isn't a stranger to playing weird roles: Oakland was the psychologist/deus ex machina who explains Norman Bates' affliction at the end of Psycho.
RATING: Thankfully, this show had a good enough chemistry between McGavin and Oakland that really made the show. Without it, it would just be one case of 'lack of suspended belief' after another. But, thanks to them, they make the loophole that is the Ripper more believable and keeps the suspense during the scenes in the Ripper's HQ. Three Stars out of Four.
